I Can Taste The Failure On Your Lips

It was mainly the heavy lifting that was so tiring. I was glad to be in a new environment, though. Plus, you’ve got to give props to the books; they’re especially fun to work with. The best thing about the job was there wasn’t much to be done. I had heard that there was another girl who was also volunteering, so between the two of us, there was practically nothing to do.

My phone lightly buzzed in my back pocket, I checked, seeing a new text from Curtis. He was asking when I was done with my shift, and I replied back to him that I was leaving around five, if there wasn’t any more work that had to be done. He told me he’d talk to Oli for me, though, I had a huge hunch that he wasn’t. I actually prayed he wouldn’t. I didn’t want Oli to think that I was paranoid, even though that’s exactly what I was.

When I was on my way back to the ‘holding’ shelf, I bumped into a girl a little taller than me with black and red hair. “Oi, are yeh Delia?” She without a doubt had the thickest cockney accent I had ever heard.

I nodded and she stuck out her hand. “I’m Kaite.”

“Nice to meet you.” I replied.

“So, yeh firs’ day on the job? How yeh likin’ it?” She asked as we both started stacking books.

“It smells like fish food in here, but other than that, it’s okay.” I replied. “I’ll definitely come back, it’s not like I have anything else to do.”

She laughed. “Wish I could say the same. My counselor is makin’ me work here. He said that it would help my anger if I worked in a quiet place.”
I laughed. “Sorry.”

“Oh, tis not yeh fault. I’m the one with the problems.” She flashed a smile at me.

We continued to talk until it was time for both of us to leave. I noticed that it was almost six-thirty. Kaite said she’d text me later, and maybe we could hang out soon. When we exited through the doors I noticed an unexpected surprise parked next to the station wagon. I narrowed my eyes to make sure that he was actually there. Kaite nudged me in the arm a couple times.

“D’yeh know ‘im?” She asked and I nodded. “He’s pretty good lookin’.”

I nodded again, and waved her goodbye before taking my first few steps towards Oliver. Despite how cold it was outside, he was sitting atop the hood of his small red car, waiting.

“Curtis said yeh got off at five. I’ve been out here for almost two hours.” He said.

I exhaled sharply, seeing my breath in the air. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“He said yeh wanted to talk?”

Shit. I really hated Curtis right about now. “Uh, I guess.”

“Well…?” He said. “If yeh got nothin’ to say then I should just leave.”

“No, wait.” He looked at me, and then glanced up at the sky. There were a few snowflakes falling, and I was guessing that he was gesturing that he didn’t have all night, and that it was extremely cold out. So if I was going to talk to him, I needed to spit it out. “I did want to talk to you.”

“Let’s ‘ave it then.”

“I was wondering why you were being such a jerk.” His eyes widened and a small smile formed on his lips before he sucked in one of his lip rings.

“I haven’t been a jerk. What’re yeh talkin’ about?” He asked.

“Whatever, You have too been a jerk. You can’t even look at me. Am I that ugly or something?”

He stopped messing with the zipper on his hoodie and looked at me. “Yeh aren’t ugly.”

It was then that I knew that he was actually being sincere. I exhaled sharply again, before pulling my keys out of my pocket. “Whatever, can you just try not to be a jerk to me?”

“I’ll try.” He said, before walking over to the driver’s side of his car. He opened the door, and got in, turning the keys in the ignition before driving off, leaving me in the middle of the parking lot, with a lot on my mind.

First, I was so pissed at Curtis.

Second, I had to talk to Jordan.